"E" Is for Evidence

It was two days after Christmas when Kinsey Millhone received the bank slip showing a credit for five thousand dollars. The account number was correct but Kinsey hadn't made the deposit. Then came the phone call and suddenly everything became clear. The frame-up was working and Kinsey was trapped.

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Kinsey is so easy to read. Compared to my last book, which was very well enjoyed and earned the same number of stars, I read it in half the time. E is for Evidence is about insurance fraud, starting with a fire at a commercial building. To begin with there is no murder, not for about half the book, which surprised me as A through D have involved Kinsey investigating a missing person who turns out to be murdered or just a murdered person who needs to be investigated. We do, eventually, get a murder (and quite a gruesome one at that), and then a second and an attempted third (no prizes for guessing who the attempted one is, if you're a fan of the books), but it takes till about halfway through the book (I was starting to think this would be a murderless Kinsey book) before we get there.

I sympathise with Kinsey and her belief that it's better, and often more enjoyable, to be alone. In fact, I'd probably suffer even less (read: not at all) from loneliness if I was in her position. I also understand some of her more brutal comments and don't think they make her a bitch, as some of the other reviewers have called her. She's just thinking what a lot of people think (myself included). You see a person and think "God, what's wrong with that man/woman? Why the hell did he/she think it was appropriate to leave the house dressed like that?" I would never say anything, and I don't stare (because I know how soul destroying it can be when dogs and small children stare at you like you've got the plague), but I do wonder if they were completely confident in the way they looked when they left the house that morning (I rarely am, so if anyone was wondering the answer from me would be "No", which is why I only leave the house when I have to).

Kinsey isn't taxing reading, but she'd be perfect to make into a marathon while you were on holiday. Nothing overly upsetting, no strange or difficult language, and a generally likeable heroine - what more could you want from a book as you float down the Rhone on a late Autumn's afternoon? I just wish I had F is for whatever ready to go, not that I don't have plenty of other books with me, I just feel like reading more Kinsey.

As part of my great Kinsey Milhone re-read I recently finished E is for Evidence. Author Grafton is not afraid to develop her main character. This novel finds Kinsey's ex-husband showing up and we get to see our protagonist relive the pain of her break-up while figuring out who is framing her. Very gripping page turner.